What Happens When Two Rival High Schools Become One? Lessons in Leadership from Virginia's Outstanding Principal of the Year
Educational Leadership with Principal JL Podcast
What would you do if you were asked to unite two rival high schools that had spent decades competing against one another?
Not just merge buildings.
Not just combine staff.
But truly build one school, one culture, and one community.
That was the challenge facing Derek Cantrell, Principal of Alleghany High School in Virginia and the 2026 Virginia Outstanding High School Principal. On Episode 77 of Educational Leadership with Principal JL, Derek shared the remarkable story behind one of the most significant school consolidations in recent memory—and the leadership lessons every administrator can learn from it.
What struck me most wasn’t the logistics.
It was the intentionality.
Culture Doesn’t Happen by Accident
One of Derek’s most powerful statements during our conversation was simple:
“If you don’t intentionally create your culture, one will be created for you.”
That’s true whether you’re opening a brand-new school, leading a veteran staff, or simply beginning another school year.
Culture isn’t defined by mission statements hanging on the wall.
It’s defined by daily interactions, relationships, celebrations, expectations, and consistency.
When Alleghany and Covington High Schools consolidated after more than 40 years of community debate, Derek understood that the biggest challenge wasn’t moving furniture or repainting walls.
It was earning trust.
Leadership Begins Before Day One
Most people think leadership starts when students arrive.
Derek proved it starts months before.
Long before the doors opened, his team intentionally built opportunities for students, staff, and families to connect.
They hosted community meetings.
Student advisory sessions.
Parent forums.
Summer activities.
Building tours.
Leadership events.
Open houses.
Even simple celebrations like unveiling new colors, logos, and painted lockers became opportunities to create excitement instead of anxiety.
Rather than allowing uncertainty to control the narrative, Derek chose communication.
Lots of communication.
His philosophy was simple:
Over communicate during times of change.
People don’t fear change nearly as much as they fear uncertainty.
Better Together Isn’t Just a Slogan
The consolidation wasn’t about one school winning and another losing.
Instead of eliminating every tradition, Derek intentionally honored both schools.
The new school kept one mascot.
Blended colors.
Preserved meaningful traditions from each campus.
Created entirely new traditions everyone could own together.
That balance mattered.
People want to know their history still matters before they’ll embrace the future.
It’s a lesson every school leader can apply—even if you’re not consolidating schools.
Whenever we ask people to embrace change, we must first acknowledge what they’re leaving behind.
Relationships Before Logistics
Throughout our conversation, one theme kept resurfacing.
Relationships.
Before policies.
Before schedules.
Before procedures.
Before logistics.
Derek repeatedly emphasized that leaders must put people first.
As principals, it’s easy to become consumed by emails, discipline, meetings, budgets, paperwork, and deadlines.
But none of those things move schools forward the way relationships do.
Students learn better.
Teachers perform better.
Communities trust more.
Culture strengthens.
Everything improves when people know they’re valued.
Great Instructional Leaders Stay in Classrooms
Another takeaway that resonated with me was Derek’s philosophy on instructional leadership.
The best principals aren’t trapped behind desks.
They’re visible.
Present.
Learning alongside teachers.
Even at the high school level—where principals certainly aren’t experts in every content area—leaders can still recognize great instruction.
As Derek shared, principals don’t have to know calculus to recognize engagement, student discourse, effective questioning, or meaningful learning.
That’s an important reminder.
Our job isn’t to know everything.
Our job is to support the experts already in our building.
AI Should Create Time, Not Replace People
One of my favorite parts of our conversation centered around artificial intelligence.
Derek isn’t using AI to replace educators.
He’s using it to give them something far more valuable.
Time.
Time to coach teachers.
Time to visit classrooms.
Time to build relationships.
Time to lead.
He shared practical ways he has built custom AI tools that streamline formal observations, analyze assessment data, align lessons with standards, and reduce repetitive administrative tasks.
His philosophy perfectly aligned with something I strongly believe:
People over paperwork.
If AI can eliminate repetitive work that steals hours from our day, then we gain more opportunities to do the work that actually changes schools—being present with students and staff.
Technology should never replace leadership.
It should amplify it.
Systems Matter
Another area where Derek and I found common ground was systems.
Successful schools don’t operate on hope.
They operate on intentional systems.
Whether discussing attendance, school culture, instructional feedback, or student recognition, Derek consistently returned to building systems that support people.
His attendance initiative dramatically reduced chronic absenteeism because expectations were clear, consistent, and supported by meaningful interventions—not simply consequences.
As I often tell my own staff, raising expectations matters.
Students generally rise to the level we consistently expect of them.
The same is true for adults.
Advice for Future School Leaders
When I asked Derek what advice he’d give aspiring administrators, his answer reflected everything we’d already discussed.
Be yourself.
Don’t let leadership change who you are.
Listen first.
Build relationships before making major changes.
Ask questions.
Surround yourself with great people.
Delegate.
You don’t need all the answers.
Those are timeless lessons.
Leadership isn’t about having the loudest voice in the room.
It’s about creating an environment where everyone else’s voice can be heard.
Final Thoughts
After spending an hour talking with Derek Cantrell, one thing became crystal clear.
Outstanding leadership isn’t built through charisma.
It’s built through consistency.
Through relationships.
Through intentional communication.
Through systems.
Through celebrating people.
Through creating cultures where everyone feels like they belong.
Whether you’re opening a brand-new school, leading through major change, or simply preparing for another school year, Derek’s story reminds us that great leadership always begins with people.
And perhaps that’s why his school didn’t simply survive consolidation.
It flourished.
Sometimes the biggest challenges become the greatest opportunities.
If we lead with purpose.
If we communicate relentlessly.
And if we truly believe we’re better together.
Click to Listen to Episode 77:
